Posted on 08/06/2006 8:16:56 PM PDT by grandpa jones
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Half the oil production on Alaska's North Slope was being shut down Sunday after BP Exploration Alaska, Inc. discovered severe corrosion in a Prudhoe Bay oil transit line.
BP officials said they didn't know how long the Prudhoe Bay field would be off line. "I don't even know how long it's going to take to shut it down," said Tom Williams, BP's senior tax and royalty counsel.
Once the field is shut down, in a process expected to take day, BP said oil production will be reduced by 400,000 barrels a day. That's close to 8 percent of U.S. oil production as of May 2006 or about 2.6 percent of U.S. supply including imports, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.ask.com ...
This is not the Main North Slope to Valdez Line but a smaller line (one of several) that brings oil from the different gathering centers to the main line.
of course, I think all that is bunk, that the oil companies are ruthless and could care less if our economy sinks to third world levels, as long as they are fat and happy....
I wish Reagan was alive....
Even though this represents a small percentage of our total oil consumtion, just watch gas prices shoot up even more....
There was an interesting article in today's paper. It indicated that high gasoline prices are not completely caused by the record oil prices. The article indicates that refineries have increased their "margin" by nearly 90% over just the last couple of years. Where margins usually decrease when raw materials get more explensive, the oil industry/gasoline business has gone down a different path - increasing the margin along with the increase in crude oil prices... thus dramitically elevating the cost to consumers....
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060807/D8JBAG9G0.html
From another source:
BP's decision to close down the Prudhoe Bay field follows the analysis of data from inspections along the pipeline system in late July, which revealed 16 anomalies in 12 locations in an oil line on the eastern side of the field, BP said. BP operates 22 miles of oil transit lines at Prudhoe Bay and has inspected about 40 percent of the system.
The "internal sensing device" is a smart pig.
get a wood burning stove for heat
It is all moot in any case, as gas prices are determined by the market, not the refiner. They roll with the flow.
If it costs more to make it then they get for it, they eat it. Just as they did for some ten years when oil was at 10-14 $ per bl.
I thought the stuff in ND was shale?
Republicans seem to be doing everything they can
tolose Congress.
I don't have all my money in energy stocks. Putting "all your eggs in one basket" ain't too smart.
But I do have a lot of "energy stocks" these days.
It's working out very well for me.
The Arabs and the oil companies can go straight to hell, and we would still be warm.
A little more info at the Houston Chronicle
Major Alaskan oil field shutting down
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/4098446.html
I know this is confusing since there has been so much conversation about shale oil but the oil in ND, Mont and Canada flows when drilled unlike the oil you refer to that must be cooked out of the shale rock. Two different things entirely. Google up Bakken if you want to educate yourself. While you're at it look up the Barnett shale in Texas. It's a monster natural gas field that's coming on line. Both the Bakken and the Barnett shale can be exploited now because of improvements in technology that have only come online recently. The kicker is that now that the technology is available there will be much more oil and gas available that was believed unrecoverable just a few years ago
That's fine for you, but you represent a tiny, tiny percentage of Americans. Most people do not live near a forest. Most people could not cut down six cords of wood each year. And if everybody in a country of more than 300 million tried, it wouldn't be long before we were out of wood altogether.
A lot of people are just going to go on needing oil, gas, and electricity to stay warm.
Um, and, what exactly is the purpose of that ? (Just curious)
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